Device for ascertaining grades



(No Model.)

D. G. WOLFE. Y DEVICE VEOE ASGEETAINING GRADES, Ew.

Patented July 5, y 1892;

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A TTOHNE Y S @nuovo-Einw asuman u c UifvutrinoA STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DAviD c. woLFE, or LYoNs, KANSAS.

DEVICE FOR ASCERTAINING GRADES, sto.V

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N o. 478,491, dated July 5, 1892. Application filed May 2'7, 1891. Serial No. 394,248. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DAVID C. VOLFE, of Lyons, in the county of Rice and State of Kansas, have invented a new and useful ImprovementinDevicesforAscertainingGrades, &c., of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide a device for ascertaining the position and heights of grades and cuts and the position of stakes and number of them; and `it consists in the peculiar construction and arrangement of the various parts of the device, which I will now proceed to fully describe.

Figurel is an edge view of the device closed or folded for transportation. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section of the hollow part of the case with the other portion in position for use. Fig. 3 is a transverse 'section of the device, and Fig. 4 is a plan view.

In the drawings, A represents a shallow wooden case provided with a handle D for carrying the same. This case has four corner plates r, which are constructed as angleirons that form seats to receive and retain the Hat base B, which carries the working parts of the device. At the ends of the case A are spring-clasps g, that have perforations that lock over short pins u on the base B, and prevent it from falling away from'the case. The base B is adapted to be fastened upon this case A, with either one of its faces uppermost. Thus, for instance, in Fig; 1, it has its bottom face outside, the working parts being housed within the case, while in Fig. 2 the working parts are upon the outside, and the caseA acts as a supporting-frame to sustain the portion B, the springcatches g u acting to hold the portion B in place in either of these positions. This is rendered practicable by locating the pins u in the middle line of the base-board B, so that they comein proper position to register with the springcatches g, no-matter which side of the base B is outward.

The base B is hollowed out or recessed about its middle, and above this is placed` a cross-plate c., having in the same a slot b, running transversely to the base B, and upon opposite sides of the plate and lapping over upon the same are the two side plates w w. The plate a4 is marked with graduations at b',

and the plates tu are marked with graduations at the inner and outer ends, as'at w wg, and at intermediate points with diagonal lines of graduations w3 tu4 w5 w w" w8.

C is a carrier-frame, which has a short vertical shaft, with a turning-knob t at its upper end and a pinion t at its lower end, which latter engages with a rack or toothed bar s, fixed in thebase B beside the slot b. By turning the knob and pinion the carrier C may be adjusted to any position on the slot b. To hold it to its adjustment, a screw-clamp h is provided, which turns upon a threaded stem h', having a head which bears against the under side ot' the edges of the slot b.

The carrier C is formed at one end with a sector of a circle c, reading to thirty-five degrees to right and left from a central zeropoint.

J is agraduated lever or rule hung at the center to the carrier and provided at this point with a screw-clamp g', by which its position may be iiXed. This rule is graduated to represent feet from its center to each end, and it swings over the face of the plates w w with a sweep orare of seventy degrees. This rule J has a limb or arc 7a within the sector e, vwhich limb is provided with avernier scale reading to five feet. The object ot' this device for ascertaining grades is to enable the calculator by the use of the instrument and the aid of mathematical tables and plates now in existence to calculate speedily and without possibility of error the cubical contents of embankments, cuts, and fills in railroad construction and in all similar work.

In railroad Work the surface of the ground is seldom level. 'In a cross-section the surface of the ground usually descends either to the right or to the left, causing a greater iill or cnt upon one side than upon the other. What is claimed for the device is that it is an 'accurate and ready calculator of the position and height of bed and slope stakes and of the cubical contents of the cut or fill Where the surface is level or where it regularly and evenly descends to the right or to the left. Where the cross-section is irregular the instrument calculates only the position and height of the bed and slope stakes.

IOO

In this device for ascertaining grades all scalesshowin g heights readfrom the surface of the road-bed.

Plate a, Fig. 4, is provided with a slot h to allow the traverse of carrier C up and down the plate a for the purpose of setting oft the given heights of grades or cuts on scale b. The initial point (zero) of carrier C is under thumb -nut 71,. Thumbnut h is used for clamping rigidly carrier C until the cross-section is fully calculated. Rack and pinion s, t, and t', Fig. 3, are to produce the movement of carrier C up and down slot b. Thumb-nut g is for the purpose of clamping swinging scales J J and of clamping limb 7c, a part of J J, to ,the degree-circle e. Swinging scales J J are scales graduated from the center to the right and left for the purpose of ascertaining distances from the center and for the purpose of reading numbers on the scales of vertical heights. Degree-circle e is for the purpose of indicating by the aid of swinging scale J J the angle of slope to the right or left. Scale w2 w3 is for the purpose of setting off by the top of scale J J the difference in perpendicular height between the surface of the ground at the center of the road-bed and the surface of the ground at a given distance therefrom. (This difference must be previously ascertained by a common Y-level and rod.) Scale w2 w2 is only for setting ott the fall of the slope of ground in a given distance. I/Vhere the fall is taken on the right, it is set off on the right on scale wz, and on the left on scale wzif the fall is taken on the left. (The fall is taken by the use of a Y- level and rod.) The fall is added to the given height ot center of road-bed, (given by civil engineer in charge.) The sum is read on scale w2. The top of scale J is moved till it intersects the sum or reading. In a fourteen-foot roadway (lill) (see Fig. 4) 102 is ittytwo feet from center of roadway. In an eighteen-foot roadway (till) L02 is fifty-,four feet from center of roadway. The fall is taken at the given distances according to wid th of road-bed used. By the position of swinging scale J J the position and height of both bed and slope stakes are at once indicated. (See Fig. 4:, w w w3 w3 w4 w4 w5 w5.) The marking and scales on w3, w4, and wf indicate perpendicular distances from the surface of the road-bed. Scales w w w w indicate the heights of cuts and tills at the side of the road-bed at the point where the top of scales J J cut such scales w w' w w. Scales w3, w,and w5 are read in the same way. Scale w5 is for calculating fills one and onehalf to one. Scale w4 is for calculating cuts one to one. Scale w3 is for calculating cuts one-fourth to one, (rock.) Scales w, wT, and w8 are used when the slope of the ground cuts the roadway, as will be seen by leaving swinging scale J Jin its position and running carrier to O feet in plate ot. The roadway is the horizontal surface of the top of a ill or the bottom of a cut. What is meant by the slope of the ground cutting the roadway is where the slope of the ground intersects the above-mentioned horizontal lines, causing a cut on the upper side, and a fill on the lower side of roadway wf w7 wS is for cuts that fall above the horizontal line or for lls, if the operator was using the device upside down, as in cuts.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, isA

l. In a device for ascertaining grades, the combination of the hollow case A, with projectingangle-irons rat the corners and springclaspsg, and a reversible base'board B, bearing upon one side a set of graduated plates and scales and having pins w projecting in central position from the ends, substantially as shown and described.

2. The combination of the plate a, provided with slot b, the side plates w w, graduated as described, the adjustable carrier y C, having sector e, and the graduated lever or rule J, hung to the carrier and provided with limb lo, substantially as shown and described.

DAVID C. VOLFE.

Vitnesses:

W. A. RAWLINGS, LEE STANFORD.

Correction in Letters Patent No. 478,491.

It is hereby certified that Letters -.Patent,No.:478,491, granted Jnly', 1892, upon themapplieation of David G. Wolfe, of Lyons, Kansas, for an improvement in Devices for Ascertainingl Grades, 850.-, an error appears in the printed `specification requiring the following correction, viz.: Inline 80,' page 1, the Word feet lshould read'miiiiites and that the said Letters Patent should be read vwith this correction therein that the same may conform to the record ofthe case in the Patent Office.

Signed, countersigned, and sealed this 9th day of August, A.D. 1892.

OYRUS `BUSSEY,

[SEAL] Assistant Secretary of the Interior.l C ountersigned:

N. L. FROTHINGHAM,

Acting Commissioner ofvPateiits. 

